Ruth Halbert
artist, weaver
Paper boat Rud.jpg

Blog: Dear Prime Minister

On July 30 2016 I started writing letters to the Prime Minister of Australia to protest against the imprisonment and torture of the asylum seekers in the offshore detention centres of Manus Island and Nauru. I started with the intention of writing a letter a day for every person in detention until they are all freed. There are more than 1800 asylum seekers in off shore detention. These are those letters and any response from Mr Turnbull.

On behalf of the 631st man on Manus Island

Dear Prime Minister,

Since July 30 2016 I have been writing a letter a day for every refugee and asylum seeker detained on Manus Island. In that time conditions have drastically deteriorated, refugees have been violently relocated, services withdrawn and your Government now hides behind the fiction that since the men are no longer locked in Lombrun RPC they are now 'free.'

This is my 631st letter to you. After refoulements, deaths and some transfers to USA there are now approximately 630 men left on Manus and in Port Moresby. I will continue to write to you, a letter a day, for every refugee and asylum seeker on Nauru. I will continue to work, along with thousands of other Australians, to end offshore detention and see all these refugees have freedom and safety. It will happen, eventually, with you or without you

activismRuth HalbertManus Island, human rightsComment